The Shilla Duty Free, one of the world’s leading travel retail companies, has commenced operations at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), after its successful bid on the perfume and cosmetics, and fashion accessories concessions earlier this year. Six retail outlets opened for business on Tuesday 12 December 2017, as a result of the positive collaboration between Shilla’s Hong Kong team and the Airport Authority Hong Kong, supported by Shilla’s Head Office in Korea. Through the dedicated efforts of the teams, the company looks forward to strengthening its Hong Kong operations and providing unparalleled experiences to their customers.

The new license marks Shilla as the first operator to simultaneously secure duty free perfumes and cosmetics concessions across the major hub airports of Incheon International, Hong Kong International and Singapore Changi. With the opening of the HKIA stores, Shilla is also pleased to announce their new vision for experiential retail - Beauty&You.

Spanning around 3300m2 of operational area, the six retail stores, situated in the restricted area of HKIA’s Terminal 1, currently offer a wide spectrum of beauty and skincare products, and fashion accessories including sunglasses, watches, small leather goods and handbags. In celebration of the soft opening, a number of brands will also be launching at HKIA for the first time, including The History of Whoo, Alexander McQueen and Didier Dubot.

Following the commencement of operations this December, the outlets will be transformed in phases into a new identity named Beauty&You, which symbolizes The Shilla Duty Free’s full commitment to travelers' entire beauty experience. Beauty&You presents a new retail concept for HKIA, combining innovative store designs with a wide array of products, excellent service and exciting activities to delight guests at every stage of their shopping journey, giving a new innovative approach to travel retail in an airport. With the Grand Opening slated for the summer of 2018 when the new retail spaces are unveiled, the number of brands featured across the six stores will increase to over 200.

Beauty&You will offer travelers and shoppers the ultimate retail destination offering skincare, beauty, fashion and accessories in an immersive retail environment. Representing how modern, travel-savvy customers shop, the new store layout will incorporate both branded counters and non-branded areas, as well as immersive engagement zones such as Elements - an area dedicated to male-specific products, and New Generation - a section showcasing the best of Korean and Japanese brands. In addition, there will be Curated Zones where featured themes and trendy looks merge into one showcase with perfume, cosmetics and fashion products on display. The new design will also be integrated with digital technology – from augmented reality to test out looks and colors, to touch screens and interactive panels – to elevate the overall shopping experience.

“We’re extremely excited to expand The Shilla Duty Free network to one of the busiest airports in the world,” says Alice Woo, Managing Director of Shilla Travel Retail Hong Kong Limited, “The airport served more than 70 million passengers annually and 1,100 aircrafts daily in the past 12 months. Hong Kong’s proximity to other Asian countries and mainland China also makes HKIA a powerful and promising hub for duty free sales. With the upcoming launch of Beauty&You, we hope to redefine the airport retail experience and customer journey through personalized service, interactive and engaging environment in one of the most robust travel markets in the world.”

To complement the physical shopping experience, The Shilla Duty Free has also collaborated with HKIA to launch products online. Travelers will now be able to select from a wide collection of products from the Beauty&You catalogue via HKairport Shop. Available 24/7, purchases made through the online platform will be ready in as early as three hours after the order has been made, allowing shoppers the convenience of collecting their purchase before or after their flight. For more information, visit http://www.hkairportshop.com/en_hk.

Accumulating over three decades of travel retail expertise, The Shilla Duty Free has expanded its global presence progressively since 2013, with the opening of their first offshore outlets in Singapore’s Changi Airport and Macao International Airport. In November 2017, the group also unveiled a brand new cosmetics and perfume store – which is the largest among all Shilla outlets inside Changi airport. More recently, The Shilla Duty Free has also ventured into off-airport channels, with downtown branches in Phuket (2016) and Tokyo (2017).